A sunny day at the allotment

A brilliantly clear and sunny winter day made it a pleasure to be out and working on the plot.

Finally we managed to make great progress with the dead hedge which has been mentioned in the blog for weeks now.  The support posts were finished, the loganberry moved to its new site, and the surrounding fencing wired onto the posts.

The first of the old Christmas trees was put in to show what it is all about and next week the other trees and prunings will be added.

This is a good way to put any prunings and dead material to good use and saves it going to green waste.  It will also provide a good habitat for the insect wildlife – bad as well as good so we will need to see how that goes.

Wind and exposure is a big problem on our plot so this hedge will filter out the wind and give protection to the fruit and vegetables growing in the beds.  It is only a metre high at the moment but will be heightened as time goes on.

The metposts for the replacement posts for training the loganberry are now in place too so next week should see the uprights put in and the wires strung along.

The soil was only frozen for the top few centimetres so we managed to dig down and get the first of the Jerusalem artichokes.  They are a good size however not attractive to look at but they make good soup.

There was time too for little tidying up to make the plot look its best for the visitors arriving for the pruning workshop this Sunday.  This is now fully booked as is the workshop at Inverleith in March.  The weather is looking good for Sunday too, a welcome change from the previous February workshop.

Jobs for next week

Finish the dead hedge
Put in fruit posts and wire up

See you on Thursday.